Thursday, February 12, 2009

1841

Oregon is celebrating its sesquicentennial this year. February 14, 2009 marks 150 years of statehood and organizers have planned plenty of events to mark the transition to statehood in 1859. Some feature speakers who descend from pioneer families who came across the Oregon Trail in the early 1840s. They'll tell of the arduous journey and the promise of fertile land in the Willamette Valley.

But if you're a part of the Daniels family, you had ancestors who were already in Oregon to greet the new settlers.

Great-grandfather to Hollister Daniels* was a French Canadian fur trapper, Francois Pluard. Born about 1795, Francois Pluard was a member of the Hudson's Bay Company. He lived in the Red River area of Manitoba, marrying Suzanne Dubois (most likely a native woman). For reasons political (who would ultimately control the Oregon Territory) and practical (fertile land), Francois Pluard, his wife, and his four children joined The Sinclair Emigration in 1841.

(The story behind the Red River Migration from Canada to Oregon is told in detail by John C. Jackson in Children of the Fur Trade, first published in 1996.)

Of the 121 emigrants in the group, 77 of them were children. Francois Pluard's daughter, Monique, recalled that as a child of five, she walked all the way from Canada to the Willamette Valley.

The Pluards eventually settled in the French Prairie area of Champoeg County, later Marion County.** Five more children were born after they came to Oregon. Albert Pluard, Hollister Daniels's grandfather, was born in December 1844.

In 1849, Francois Pluard, and many other of the French Canadians, became American citizens. The timing of their decision probably had much to do with the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, which granted 320 acres to every married couple in the Territory prior to 1850.

Francois Pluard's citizenship document is in the Oregon State Archives in Salem, Oregon. It reads in part:

Therefore I, Francois Plurde having made known my intention of becoming a citizen of the United States of America and taken the oath of Naturalization do solemnly swear that I renounce all allegiance to all foreign Princes Kings Potentates & particularly to Queen Victoria, Queen of Great Britain & Ireland and that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and the Act to establish the Territorial Government of Oregon, so help me God.
Sworn to and subscribed before me this 21st day of April 1849


Francois X (his mark) Plurde

I. M. Gilbert Clerk of Champoeg County




Francois Pluard and Suzanne Dubois lived and farmed in the French Prairie region of Oregon, but records of their lives, like those of many of the French-Canadians, are scarce--except for those compiled by the parish priests at the Catholic churches in St. Paul and St. Louis.(The registers were translated by Harriet Munnick and are a priceless resource.)


The parish register at St. Louis has this entry:


The 29 December, 1844, we undersigned missionary of the Company of Jesus, in supplying the ceremonies of Baptism, have baptized under condition Albert born the day before of the legitimate marriage of Francois Plourde and Suzanne Dubois. Godfather, Joseph Gagnon; Godmother Marguerite Desjarlais.

Aloys Verecruysse


Suzanne Dubois died at about age 88. Francois Pluard reportedly lived to be about 108 years old. Both are buried in the "Highland Cemetery" near Mt. Angel.

I don't have records for all of their nine children. Two of them, Albert and Bazile, each had nine children. The name Pluard is spelled various ways--Pluerad, Plurad, Plourde. (Bazile's obituary in the Cottage Grove Sentinal newspaper spelled his name Basil Pleuard.)

Chances are, though, if they're a Pluard in Oregon, they're probably a cousin!

________________________________________
* Hollister Daniels born 1899 to Elizabeth Pluard. Elizabeth Pluard born 1877 to Albert Pluard. Albert Pluard born 1844 to Francois Pluard.

** Marion County is in the mid Willamette Valley and is where Salem, the state capital, is located. French Prairie is still an area of farms, many in nursery stock.

6 comments:

  1. This is great! It'll be a great way for you to share what you've learned, delivered in digestible chunks -- a very good read indeed!

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  2. Looks real good. Is it linked to any of the official Oregon sites?
    Paul & Sunny

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  3. Hmmm, linking. I'll have to figure out how to do that. As I don't plan on posting any information of people still living, I don't think there would be privacy issues.

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  4. A great job Lynn!
    Thanks
    Joy Wulff

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  5. I enjoyed reading about my Plourde/Daniels families.
    Thanks,
    Valerie

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  6. We're on vacation right now, but when I get back, I hope to put onto the blog some of the information about Champney Pendleton. We got some photos of Mt. Pulaski, Illinois last summer, an area the Pendletons came from.
    Lynn

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